Diamondbacks' Caleb Smith loses appeal, begins serving 10-game sticky stuff suspension

Diamondbacks left-hander Caleb Smith lost his appeal and he began serving a 10-game suspension on Saturday for having a foreign substance on his glove in a game last month.

The Diamondbacks will not be allowed to replace Smith on the roster during the 10 games, a penalty somewhat mitigated by the two-man roster expansion in September. That is, they will have a 27-man roster while their opponents will have 28.

Smith was not available for comment. Manager Torey Lovullo said Smith left the team and returned to Arizona. Lovullo expects Smith to remain in pitching shape and be ready to go when he is eligible on Sept. 22 vs. the Atlanta Braves.

Umpires found two dark, sticky spots on the inside heel of Smith’s glove during a game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Aug. 18. Smith argued after the game that they were the unintentional buildup of rosin and dirt.

Even if that were true, the league had grounds to suspend Smith for being in violation of Rule 6.02(d), which reads, in part, “… neither shall the pitcher nor any other player be permitted to apply rosin from the bag to his glove.”

Lovullo said it wasn’t his place to share details of Smith’s argument with the commissioner’s office during his appeal hearing, which was held earlier this week. But Lovullo said the gist was the same as the comments Smith made to reporters on the night of the incident.

“It’s dirt,” Smith said on Aug. 18. “The inside of my glove is baby blue. Where my hand goes in is blue. Last time I checked, we played baseball and you get dirty in baseball. You sweat a lot. I touch the dirt a lot. There’s not a foreign substance on there. There’s not pine tar. There’s nothing on there. I don’t use that.”

Lovullo said he remains “aligned with (Smith) that it was unintentional.”

“We’re going to stand by him,” he continued, “through these next, frustrating 10 days and make sure he’s ready to go on that 11th day.”

Baseball implemented new rules earlier this season banning the use of foreign substances by pitchers. Increasingly, pitchers had been using stickier concoctions to augment their grip on the ball and increase spin and movement.

The in-game checks by umpires began in late June. Smith is just the second pitcher to be caught and suspended after Seattle Mariners lefty Hector Santiago.

Short hops

Right-hander Tyler Clippard threw a 25-pitch bullpen session on Saturday. He has been out since Tuesday due to flu-like symptoms.

*Right-hander Merrill Kelly is scheduled to throw a bullpen on Monday, Lovullo said, at which point his next outing will be determined. It is possible he will return to the rotation after that. Kelly has been out since testing positive for COVID-19 in mid-August.

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Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or nick.piecoro@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.